Frequently asked questions

Queer Healers is a global online directory of alternative medicines and holistic practices provided by and for queer people.

The Queer Healers directory can be accessed worldwide. Primarily based in New York, our team splits time between NY and Atlanta.

An informed facilitator or care provider who has specific knowledge around healing practices, also called modalities, that can assist in an individual's healing process.

Both. We're talking massage therapists, tarot readers, death doulas, psychoanalysts, life coaches, herbalists, midwives, AND animal communicators -- all Queer and all verified.

Please email us at [email protected] with 'Account deletion' in the subject line, and we will delete your account.

Please contact us directly at [email protected].

We know that Terms of Service statements on digital platforms can be weaponized against marginalized communities. Our intention is to reduce liability exposure to our website visitors, our listed practitioners, our legal entity, and our team members. Read our full Terms of Service.

Queer Healers offers practitioners an online home for their practice that places them within a community of like-hearted peers. Queer Healers also offers an alternative to the pressures of social media, which is not only exploitative but unsustainable. Our hub allows practitioners to reach new audiences without the pressure of constant content creation and self-branding. Last but not least, Queer Healers provides an alternative to maintaining a personal website which can be cost-prohibitive and inaccessible for many of our most talented healers.

• Using Our Payment Gateway allows you to list your practice for free! It's a great option for practitioners who don’t require HIPAA compliance and don't have a robust platform of their own. When you have a listing with us, you set your own session rates, and your practice benefits from an ever-widening audience that is made up of not only prospective clients but peers as well. When a booking is completed, Queer Healers receives a 10% service fee from the total amount charged, which is partly covered by the client and partly covered by the practitioner. Selecting this listing type guarantees we are only compensated when you are! Our service fee covers bank fees and enables us to operate and grow the platform.
• Using Your Own Payment Gateway This HIPAA compliant listing type allows you to use Queer Healers as a directory that leads clients to your private website and booking system. It's a great option for licensed clinicians with specific intake needs, established practitioners looking to widen their reach, and practitioners who prefer to only manage one booking and payment system. For a subscription fee of $9.99/month USD, this listing type routes new clients your way, offers you queer community, and puts your practice before a worldwide audience via our promotional channels. You can cancel your subscription or convert it to a free listing at anytime. Our monthly fee supports the platform and allows us to operate.

Click List Your Practice! There, you’ll find step by step directions toward becoming a part of our Queer Healer network. Before you build your profile, be sure to have these items at the ready:

• An avatar image for search results
• A sense of the identity markers that you feel comfortable sharing with others
• A description of your practice and the exact fees that you are ready to post publicly
• Two testimonials from people who have experienced your offerings
• A bank account from one of these currently-supported countries

When creating a practitioner listing, you need to upload an avatar (required for search results) and will have the option to upload a banner image and any additional images that illustrate your practice. For the best quality:

• Search Results Image: This image is required as it will be displayed in our search results. File formats: JPG, PNG, GIF. File size: 20MB max. Image dimensions: square images work best.


• Banner Image: This image is required as it displays across the top of your listing. We provide default images or you can use your own. File formats: JPG, PNG, GIF. File size: 20MB max. Image dimensions: horizontal/landscape-oriented images work best.


• Additional Images: These optional images can be viewed by clicking the “View all photos” button at the top of your listing. File formats: JPG, PNG, GIF. File size: 20MB max. Image dimensions: horizontal/landscape, vertical, and/or square images will all display well here.

Once logged in to Queer Healers, edit your listing any time by clicking My Listing in the top navigation bar, then click Edit Listing in the grey area just below. REMINDER: you must click the Save button at the base of each Edit section in order for any changes to be saved.

Now is a great time to review how your practice is accessible! Some prompts to get you started: ramps, elevators, distance estimates, stair counts, parking, gender-neutral and/or ADA-compliant bathrooms, virtual sessions, outdoor sessions, closed captions, interpreters, translated materials, on-site childcare, parents’ room, scents, stimulants, visual aids, hearing aids, and/or sliding-scale or other fee arrangements.

Stripe has a limited number of countries from which it will accept bank account details for payouts. That is to say, for the time being, we are only able to add and send money to practitioners from these countries that are currently supported.

Our practitioners begin their application process by providing accreditation information and required testimonials. But, not all modalities can be well represented in these ways. That’s why, in addition to profile pages, we’ve created space for reviews and feedback. Together we can share our experiences and guide members of our community toward making the right choices for them.

Once you find the practitioner you’d like to work with, check out their offerings and select the session that feels right for you. If the practitioner you've selected takes bookings through our website, consult their calendar to find an available date and time, enter your payment info, submit your booking request, and wait for the practitioner's response! If the practitioner you've selected takes bookings through their private website, click book now and follow the provided prompts.

Please note that your initial booking request on our website is just that – a request that must be reviewed by the practitioner. If your booking request is accepted, your card will be charged and you are good to go! If your booking request is denied, you will not be charged. Please note: booking requests made through a practitioner's private website are the responsibility of that practitioner.

When booking sessions through our payment gateway, practitioners have 24-hours from the time that the booking request is sent by the client to either accept or decline. If a practitioner does not act upon the request within 24-hours, the booking request will expire and the client will be notified. For practitioners who use their own website to process bookings, response time may vary based on that individual's policies.

• If a client cancels a requested booking using the QueerHealers payment gateway:

• Policy: If a client cancels a requested booking through our payment gateway (i.e. before the practitioner responds to the request), their card is not charged and there is no need for a refund. Only accepted bookings incur a charge.

• How to cancel a requested booking made through our payment gateway: To cancel a requested booking through our website, the client must tap Bookings in the header navigation, select the requested booking to be canceled, then click the Cancel My Booking Request button.

• If a client cancels an accepted booking made through our payment gateway more than 24-hours before the start time:

• Policy: If a client cancels an accepted booking made through our payment gateway (i.e. after the practitioner accepted the request) more than 24-hours before the session start time, the client will receive a refund minus Stripe’s bank fees. The practitioner will not be paid out for this canceled booking.

• How to cancel:To cancel an accepted booking, clients must contact us via [email protected].

• If a client cancels an accepted booking made through our payment gateway within 24-hours of the start time:

• Policy: If a client cancels an accepted booking made through our payment gateway (i.e. after the practitioner accepted the request) within 24-hours of the session start time, the client will not receive a refund. The practitioner will be paid out for their time. If the cancellation is due to imminent health concerns, please reach out to the practitioner to discuss further options.

• How to cancel:To cancel an accepted booking, clients must contact us via [email protected].

• If a practitioner cancels an accepted booking made through our payment gateway:

• Please note: While it’s rare, sometimes a practitioner may need to cancel a booked session. In the unlikely event a practitioner needs to cancel a booked session, you will be notified immediately and given the option to find a similar practitioner and request to book with them.

• Policy: If a practitioner cancels an accepted booking made through our payment gateway (i.e. after they accepted the booking request), the client will receive a full refund regardless of when the cancellation happens. If the cancellation is due to imminent health concerns, please reach out to the client to discuss further options.

• How to cancel:To cancel an accepted booking, practitioners must contact us via [email protected]

• If a client doesn’t show up within 30-minutes of the session start time:

• Policy: If a session booked through our payment gateway does not take place because the client did not arrive within 30-minutes of the session start time, the client will not receive a refund and the practitioner will be paid out for their time.

• How to report:To report a client no-show, practitioners must contact us via [email protected].

• If a practitioner doesn’t show up within 30-minutes of the session start time:

• Please Note: While it’s rare, a practitioner could have an unexpected emergency that prevents them from showing up for a booked session and from communicating with you about it. In the unforeseen event a practitioner doesn’t show up for your booked session within 30-minutes of the session start time, please let us know!

• Policy: If the session booked through our payment gateway does not take place because the practitioner did not arrive within 30-minutes of the start time, the client can file a claim by emailing Queer Healers within 24-hours of the session’s end time so that payment to the practitioner can be suspended while we look into the matter. If both parties confirm the session did not start within 30-minutes of the start time, the client will receive a full refund. If the client does not file a claim with Queer Healers within 24-hours of the accepted booking’s end time, the practitioner will receive payment and the client will not receive a refund via Queer Healers.

• How to report:To report a practitioner no-show, clients must contact us via [email protected].

Queer Healers does not process insurance claims. All insurance concerns and referrals must go through the practitioner or provider group directly.

• For clients, browsing our directory is free! Once a practitioner accepts a booking, the total paid by the client covers Stripe’s bank transaction fee and a portion of our service fee.
• For practitioners using our payment gateway, listing their practice in our directory is free! Once their listing is published, they set their own session rates, and their practice benefits from an ever-widening audience of prospective clients. In exchange, Queer Healers receives a 10% service fee from the total amount transacted for a completed booking on our platform, which is partly covered by the client and partly covered by the practitioner. This is a great option for practitioners who don’t need HIPAA compliance or practitioners who don’t have a robust platform of their own. Messages exchanged between clients and practitioners who use this listing type can be accessed by our team. Our service fee is what enables us to cover bank fees, operate, and grow the platform.
• For practitioners using their own payment gateway, listing your practice is $9.99/month USD. Our new HIPAA-compliant listing type enables practitioners to use Queer Healers as a directory that leads clients to their own website. This is a great option for licensed clinicians with specific client intake needs, established practitioners looking to deepen their presence within queer communities, and practitioners who prefer to only manage one booking and payment system. In addition to queer community, practitioners benefit from visibility in front of a worldwide audience via our promotional channels. Our monthly fee supports the platform and allows us to operate.

When a session is booked through the Queer Healers payment gateway, payments, payouts, and refunds are all processed via Stripe based on the following timings:

• Payments are charged to the client’s card when a practitioner accepts their booking request.
• Payouts are automatically processed 24-hours after the session end time and sent to the practitioner's bank account – assuming there is no transaction dispute.
• Refunds are manually initiated (so timing varies) and sent to the client’s card, if issued.

With Stripe as our payment gateway, Queer Healers website users can pay with all major credit cards.

If you have properly connected your bank account to Stripe, and assuming your client does not contact us within 24-hours of the session end time to report an issue, your payout will be automatically initiated 24-hours after the session’s end time. You will typically receive the funds within 5-7 business days. Please note: If your client cancels more than 24-hours before the session start time, they will get a full refund, minus Stripe’s bank fees, and you will not be paid out. If your client cancels within 24 hours of the session start time, they will not be refunded and you will be paid out for the scheduled session.

Once a practitioner and a client complete a session, the client is prompted to review their experience. As soon as the client submits their review, it will appear on the practitioner’s public listing and the practitioner is notified via email and their Queer Healers messages. Reviews increase the chance of a practitioner being booked, inform our users (practitioners and clients alike), and create a culture of accountability and reciprocity on our platform. Reviews can only be moderated and/or removed by the Queer Healers team. To that end, while we encourage candidness, violent language or hate speech of any kind will not be tolerated. We encourage our users to flag such instances for our attention via the “Report Abuse” link on every practitioner’s listing page.

Once a practitioner and a client complete a session, the client is prompted to review their experience. As soon as the client submits their review, it will appear on the practitioner’s public listing and the practitioner is notified via email and their Queer Healers messages. Reviews increase the chance of a practitioner being booked, inform our users (practitioners and clients alike), and create a culture of accountability and reciprocity on our platform. Reviews can only be moderated and/or removed by the Queer Healers team. To that end, while we encourage candidness, violent language or hate speech of any kind will not be tolerated. We encourage our users to flag such instances for our attention via the “Report Abuse” link on every practitioner’s listing page.

It is unlikely that a client will book a practitioner with no reviews! We encourage you to ask existing clients to book with you on Queer Healers and leave a review of the session. Note: In the spirit of encouraging community accountability and a reputational system, we do not manually add reviews to listings that are sent to us by practitioners.

Given the prevalence of anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment around the world, from households to entire countries, we know that privacy can be tied to the safety of the Queer Healers website visitors. Read our full Privacy Policy.

To keep our community secure, we use Stripe for payment processing, practitioner payouts, and handling any financial information relating to the use of our platform. We do not save or store your financial information (i.e. credit/debit card, bank account, and billing details). This data is stored and managed by Stripe.

• We cannot access your account passwords.
• We cannot access your bank information or credit/debit card details – that information is stored on Stripe.
• We track, store, and can view website activity, booking-related data, and messages sent between clients and practitioners.
• We send targeted marketing emails and then track, store, and can view email activity.

• With logged out users and logged in users who are browsing:
  • Any information practitioners add to their listing, including identities tags and a map location
• With logged in users who request a booking:
  • No additional information is shared yet
• With logged in users once a practitioner accepts their booking request for an in-person session:
  • The practitioner’s physical location for the session is revealed to the client only AFTER the practitioner accepts the booking request to ensure the client knows how to find the practitioner’s practice space.

• With practitioners who receive a booking request:
  • The client’s first name and last name initial
• With practitioners after they accept a booking request:
  • No additional information is shared